OVER 1700 TONS DROPPED

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 48, 25 August 1943, Page 5

OVER 1700 TONS DROPPED

LONDON, August 24,

R.A.P. bombers gave Berlin last night its heaviest attack of the war. It was a massive and highly-concentrated raid, made in very great strength, and was twice as heavy as any previously made on the German capital.

The bombers were over the city in fair weather just before midnight. Great fires broke out, and columns of smoke rose three miles into the sky. Some enemy fighters were destroyed as the raiders were on the way to Germany, and also over Berlin. K.A.F. fighters took a hand in the operations by making widespread attacks on airfields in Germany and occupied territory. Some of them went as far as Hanover. •

Fifty-eight R.A.F. bombers and one fighter are missing,

The last big raid on Berlin was in March, when 900 tons of bombs were dropped. In last night's raid — the seventy-third the German capital has suffered—over 1700 tons of bombs were dropped—four times the weight of the explosives dropped by the Germans in their biggest raid on London.

Pilots who took part in the raid tell of the opposition they met. One who had been in most of the big raids on the Ruhr and on Hamburg said he was surprised at the comparative lightness of the anti-aircraft fire, but once over Berlin he realised why: the Germans had flung swarms of night-fighters into the battle. "I have never seen so many before," he said. "There were about 20 belts of searchlights inside the capital and around it, working together with the fighters. We streaked across the beams as fast as we; could go, and the searchlights came after us, chasing us across the sky. Our bombers fought back with the fighters, and soon combats were going on all over the place." The fires started last night were seen by the pilots 200 miles away on the trip home, and there were several big explosions. One area of about four square miles was reported to be a mass of flame.

It is known that at least 12 enemy fighters were destroyed. Fires were still raging over Berlin this morning. There was a thick pall of smoke, and it* was difficult for the reconnaissance pilot to see details, but during the 20 minutes he was over the city he saw no transport going in or out.

Recent attacks on Berlin have been confined to harassing raids by R.A.F. Mosquitoes, which went over the citjr on five nights during one week lyyIt is officially announced in Stockholm that the Swedish Legation in Berlin is being removed to a place outside the capital. With the fate of Hamburg before them, the Germans had been preparing for a major attack on Berlin, and the citizens had been warned to be ready for the R.A.F. A great number of people had been evacuated.

Berlin makes arms, ammunition, tanks, and every kind of war weapons, and" also has important railways.

Berlin was reached, and the visibility over the target was excellent. Smoke from the fires was reported to be as high as 15,000 feetGroup Captain Hughie Edwards, V.C., D.5.0., who now commands a station where there is an Australian squadron, was out last night with his squadron. He said that in his experience—j-and he has taken part in most of the big raids of the war —the attack on Berlin was an outstanding success.—B.O.W.